Anecdote from a new-comer

My narrative is directed to my peers and teacher, I also tried to identify with those who just like me are also immigrants. I had to tailor my writing by choosing different words, trying to not repeat myself, and had to make sure that it was somehow understandable. Explained me as clearly as I could, without making it too long or confusing for the reader. I also tried to appeal to my readers’ emotions, I wanted to have something that they could relate to while reading my narrative. I thought of my story of something that was very common in this country, and mostly here in New York, so I was sure that whoever read it was going to feel some type of connection with it.

A few important points I got from this phase were that writing was a great way to express yourself, to seek comprehension of others, and to open the minds of many. Personally, I do not tend to enjoy writing, I feel like my brain is not good at expressing itself with words, and it becomes more difficult when making a formal piece of writing. But in this phase I was able to somehow get through that, open my mind and expand my vocabulary, and it did not feel too bad, because I was talking about something that I enjoyed, at first, I had many doubts about it, but once my thoughts and ideas became clear, it just came out fluent, I had to improve it for sure, double-checking everything, and with the help of my peers. Also, the narrative helped me remember how proud I had to be about myself because without noticing it, I was able to overcome many difficulties throughout the time I have been here, not only academically, but in more parts of my life.

Most of the writings I have done are for school purposes, this impacts my writing because it always has to make up for certain rules, and limitations. These pieces of writing constantly have the purpose of responding to a prompt, limiting me to write only about that certain topic, I have to also make sure that the writing is explicitly about it which makes me have a certain level of exigence on myself. I have always been told that when writing you have to try to repeat yourself as little as possible, to make sure that whoever is reading it does not get tired of what you talk about, and make sure that their interest is caught by what you are saying. In every essay or story, I write I make sure to use a more structured vocabulary.

In this phase I was able to “develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising and editing”. While writing this narrative I always made sure to read whatever I wrote multiple times to make sure it was correct, and in case there was something that could be written differently I will fix it right away. Also, I collaborated with my peers to give each other ideas, and ways in which we could make our writings better. They helped me fix certain places where things needed to be expressed differently, and find errors in my narrative. Also, I learned why making a draft is always important in writing, and how to fully take advantage of drafting. In this phase, I was able to use each of these strategies to make sure that my narrative was as neat as possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moving to a new country— an anecdote that can be told by billions of people in different ways could be seen as a story with many parallel sides. But still, each is different from one another. It is frequently seen people coming from their home countries to the United States. Most travel to get a better life, to be able to maintain their families, to give proper education to their kids, many seeking for their own wellbeing. Each story is different. But many have the same purpose.

I remember the day I arrived in the United States, November twentieth in the middle of fall, a chill breeze could be felt, the surroundings being different from what I was used to. A thirteen-year-old boy is in a completely new place. I remember telling my dad “Wow!, this feels so different from the Dominican Republic”. I still could not completely believe we were here, a place I had barely any knowledge about, barely heard about it as a kid. Until I was told I was moving here. There my intrigue and curiosity arose. Heard many good things about the country, listening to my family speaking about how life here was better than in my home country, how there were more job opportunities, more stability, better education, etc. Hearing all of these gave me a lot of hope. And if I am being truthful to myself, arriving in this country became a turning point in my life.

My family would always mention how people here lived much better, how easier it was to get things. They would speak about how great schools were. They would always say “Being bilingual opens many gates for you”, they wanted me to take advantage of the education I was going to get. I used these words as fuel to keep pushing through the difficulties. Even when I had a hard time in my learning path these words would be some type of inspiration to me.

On the first day of school, I was unfamiliar with the school experience from here. I recall comparing my school with schools I had seen on TV in some movies and shows, big halls, and different classrooms for each subject, lunchtime in cafeterias, and the English language. For sure English was one of the biggest deals for me back then. No knowledge of it, and being surrounded by so many English speakers, and almost no people who spoke Spanish. I believe this is the most uncomfortable feeling by those who are new to the country. I constantly remember how my peers used to stare at me with an unusual look in their eyes. On top of these challenges, being the ‘new’ kid was nerve-racking. In some classes some kids will come to me and try to speak to me, knowing I didn’t understand them, but they would try to speak Spanish to me. They acted around me as if I was some type of “anomaly”, something they were not used to as well. In some type of way we were so different, in fact, we may have had that in common, how strange they appear to me just like how strange I appear to them, which intrigues me even more. But unlike them, I was very shy and quiet, also limited by my knowledge of English. Also, it amazed me to see the diversity in this country, people from many different countries, it was something I wasn’t used to seeing. New cultures that I had barely heard of. Discovering things that I never thought of.

Being exposed to these new surroundings brought up much more curiosity to me, I wanted to be able to communicate with them and be able to learn more about the country and the people that were around me in school. This particular interest was the reason for me to start my journey to learn English. I wanted to be able to communicate with them, to understand them. I started by learning simple words, reading interactive books, the ones that little kids would use. I would take things slow and easy, and with time start to go into more difficult reading. This was the way I saw myself learning the language, with the help of my sister, peers, and teachers, I slowly started to understand more. I think back to an English class I used to have, which was composed by non-American students. Most of my peers were Hispanics, and we all were there to learn English. It was a fun and interactive class, which was divided by levels. The more advanced you were, the harder work was. This was one of my favorite classes because not only I was surrounded by people who were going through the same situation as me, I was able to meet great people from different countries, which I discovered was one of my passions.

The efforts started to show results, as time went by I started to notice that I was able to understand English better. Speaking was my next challenge. But at least I was able to read it and listen to it with less difficulty, besides I was capable of writing it. With these capabilities, I started to make some friends. Even though I was not good at speaking English, I would try my best to have a short conversation with them. And even though I did not talk much, they would constantly talk to me.

Even though I was limited to speaking the language, that did not stop me from making some friends, which helped me grow and strengthen my skills. They helped me learn more not only about the language but about their cultures. People from Jamaica, India, Arabic, Honduras, Spain, Colombia, and many other countries. They taught me about things I had a narrow apprehension of.

Going down my memory lane, that has been one of the best experiences I had, going through all these taught me that effort and dedication have great outcomes. I was able to push myself through those challenges and have not taken the opportunity to think about how far I have got, from being there until today. Bringing these gives me a sense of pride in myself because I could complete the goals I set for myself. I was able to acquire the knowledge of reading and speaking English. Also, I was able to learn more about my peers’ cultural backgrounds, understand them and where they came from. These were the two most important goals I set for myself back then and completing them filled me with pride.